High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Skin effect is the tendency of an alternating electric current (AC) to distribute itself within a conductor so that the current density near the surface of the conductor is greater than that at its core. That is, the electric current tends to flow at the "skin" of the conductor, at an average depth called the skin depth. The skin effect causes the effective resistance of the conductor to increase with the frequency of the current because much of the conductor does little. Skin effect is due to eddy currents set up by the AC current. At 60 Hz in copper, skin depth is about a centimetre. At high frequencies skin depth is much smaller. Methods to minimise skin effect include using specially woven wire and using hollow pipe-shaped conductors.